


Water

by WritingBiologi



Series: The Harmonious Four [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, OC, Waterbending & Waterbenders, northern water tibe, orginal character - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 23:19:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14862209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingBiologi/pseuds/WritingBiologi
Summary: Noa has been working on a necklace for quite a while to present to a special someone. As he is helping his friend improve his waterbending for his up and coming waterbending trial, his friend persuade him to go on a journey to find the special someone.





	Water

Night had descended over the city and the waxing moon shone through his window. At his desk in the gleam of the lard lamp he fiddled with a small piece of bone, carving into it. He had sat there for days meticulously working to make it as perfect as it possibly could be. This was not the first he had worked on, but it would be his last. For the past four years he had worked to perfect the bone carving, but he never felt it was good enough for its purpose—always a wrong line or it never matched what he had envisioned. Over and over he sat in frustration—never did it live up to his expectations. However, this time he felt confident. This was it.

As the night crept forward, the darkened sky began turning a brighter hue and the moon fading from view. Dawn had begun its march across the sky. He looked out the window on the icy architecture, eyelids hanging low. He had worked in a haze of determination and memory to complete his creation, and had not noticed the creeping dawns approach. He placed the bone carved piece on the table after taking a final look at it. He smiled—it was completed. He pushed the chair out and walked to his bed to get some rest.

A loud knock sounded from the wooden door. He slowly opened his eyes and groaned. His heavy eyelids sunk once more. A second and louder knock sounded. He woke up with a head jerk. He got out of bed, scratching his beard and rubbing his eyes. Outside the door stood another man dressed in warm, blue coloured clothing. In his sleep induced daze it took him a few moments to recognize the man in front of him.

“Munlaq, what are you doing here?” he asked.

“Are you going to invite me in or what?” Munlaq asked. He motioned him to enter. “Noa, I came here to deliver what you requested—carded buffalo yak wool.” Munlaq placed a ball of rolled up wool on the table.

“Thank you, this is more than enough,” Noa said and placed his hand on the ball of wool. It felt soft to the touch—a most wonderful feeling. Noa wanted the choker to feel soft around the neck.

“You finished it? It looks better than the others you made,” Munlaq said and picked up the carved bone piece of off the table.

“Practice and persistence makes perfect. It wasn’t easy though,” Noa replied.

“I think she will like it,” Munlaq said.

Noa hoped the same, even if he would not be able to present it to her for months. He had poured his heart, soul, and spirit into the betrothal necklace. Thinking about the necklace almost being complete made his heart pound in his chest. Rarely had he been as nervous as he was at the prospect of asking for her hand in marriage.

“Now that I have helped you, would it be too much to ask if you could help me prepare for my final waterbending test?” Munlaq said.

Noa looked away from the window. “Of course, it is no issue and if it is anything like my own you will do fine,” he replied. He took a moment of thought and said “meet me in the tundra at sundown.”

Munlaq gave a slight nod, “the tundra at sundown.” He gave Noa a pad on the shoulder and walked out the door.

Noa sat in the chair and began unfurling the wool yarn and started weaving it into a choker. At midday sun, he finished weaving and attached the bone piece to the choker, functioning as a buckle. He placed the necklace on the table and admired his finished product. He was almost there, now he just had to find her.

Dusk came creeping as the sun began setting below the horizon, the last light of the day reflecting of off the icy buildings. Noa made his way to the outskirts of the city where the tundra began. He continued a way out in the tundra to the frozen corpse of a wayward sea serpent. It was dark by the time Noa arrived. Munlaq was standing in front of the frozen corpse in the gleam of a few torches illuminating the black drapes of night left behind by an absent sun. Noa observed Munlaq as he practised his waterbending stances and techniques.

“Your arms need to be move higher, and your stance narrower,” Noa said and demonstrated by sending a wave of snow towards Munlaq. The snow hit Munlaq and threw him of balance.

Munlaq got up, and with a stroke of his hands bended the snow off of him. “Funny, very funny,” he said and opened a hole in the snow beneath Noa’s feet. Noa felt the snow move underneath him and slid across the snow before the sinkhole formed. Noa transformed a patch of snow into water and send it flying towards Munlaq who—in an elegant motion—redirected it and flung it back at Noa, trapping his feet. As Munlaq smirked and lowered his guards slightly, Noa eyed an opportunity and turned Munlaq into a snowman.

Noa walked up to him and released him from his frozen constraints. Both of them grinning and laughing. They gave each other a hug and when they pulled away, Noa placed his hand on Munlaq’s shoulder.

“You lowered your guard.” Noa began imitating the stance Munlaq had used and explained where Munlaq went wrong. Munlaq copied him, with Noa correcting the stance.

They had been going at it for hours, and had worked their way through most of the techniques Noa had been tested in. In the time they had spent, Noa could see Munlaq improving even if Munlaq himself was not satisfied.

“With this technique it is important to have smooth movements and to not only look like water, but to feel like it as well,” Noa said and demonstrated.

“Before I feel anything, perhaps we can have a short rest,” Munlaq said and sat in the snow.

Noa nodded and sat next to Munlaq.

They were sitting in silence listening to the wind blow across the snow covered tundra. Noa took a deep breath and leaned back to lie in the snow. He looked up at the clear night sky looking for a particular constellation. It was a constellation a woman had shown him when she had visited the Northern Water Tribe during the New Moon Celebration. Even though it was an annual event he had not seen her since the day she left for the Southern Water Tribe four years ago.

“You are thinking about her, don’t you?” Munlag’s voice brought Noa back from his own thoughts. He sat up and gazed at the moon light ever so slightly reflected of off the snow.

“Yes I am,” he said.

“You have been thinking about her a lot, when were you planning on going to her?” Munlaq asked. For a moment Noa had no clue what to answer. He had never thought about when he would leave for the Southern Water Tribe to find her, all he knew was that it would happen one day.

“I mean—the necklace is done I assume,” Munlaq continued, “and you should leave before it is too late.”

Noa pondered on Munlaq’s words for a moment before he said, “When should I leave?”

“The day after tomorrow,” Munlaq replied, “we will prepare your journey tomorrow.”

“So soon?” Noa said with surprise, “but I made a promise to you and that is still a fortnight away.”

“It is now or never—and besides—I will be fine,” Munlaq said, “should we call it for tonight?”

Noa stretched and nodded. He stood up and gave Munlaq a hand. On their way back they began discussing some of the preparations needed for Noa’s journey to the Southern Water Tribe. At the city limit they said their goodnights and headed in different directions.

It was late at night and the city was almost dead and deserted was it not for a single gondola slowly making its way through the canals. Noa greeted the woman steering it as he passed by. The city had a different feel to it when walking the snowy streets alone late at night without a soul in sight—it possessed an air of eeriness. Noa turned a corner and looked up at his window as he always did when reaching his abode. The window was open. Noa stopped for a moment. He was certain he had closed the shutters prior to leaving. Before he could reach a conclusion, a figure leaned out of the window and looked around. Noa yelled out at the figure and started running towards his home.

The figure jumped out of the window and bended the snow beneath them to soften their landing and ran away from an approaching Noa. Noa attempted to stop catch the figures feet in ice, stopping him in his tracks. Noa stopped and raised his arm. The ice underneath the figures feet shot up from the street and caught both of their feet. The figure fell face first to the ground.

As Noa approached, the figure released themself from the ice manacle and spun around with their leg, sending an arch of snow towards Noa hitting him in the chest, bringing him to one knee. Noa lifted the water from the canal causing a wave the flood the street, sending it towards the figure who redirected the water back to the canal.

Noa caught up to the figure. He went in for a punch bringing snow from the street with it. The figure back-flipped to avoid it, but snow landed a hit on their hip. From the pocket rim Noa noticed something hanging out. He focused in on it and it looked like the necklace he had crafted.  With a water whip, Noa reached out for the necklace and pulled it out of their pocket. The figure grabbed for it, but was not fast enough to get a hold of it before Noa had it his hand.

“Why do you have this—answer me!” Noa called out, but was met with silence. The figure turned around and started running once more. With a clenched fist around the necklace and white knuckles, Noa raised his arms and yanked them down in a rough motion, burrowing the figure chest deep into the street. He walked up and looked down on them. As Noa got closer, the moonlight offered enough light to faintly see they were wearing a mask with a symbol on the forehead.

“Who are you and why did you steal this?” Noa asked and held out the hand holding the necklace. The faceless mask starred back at him with no sound escaping from their mouth hidden beneath it. The cool and calm air emanating from the person behind the mask was unsettling. As Noa stood there watching this someone looking back at him with a blank look, his heart began beating faster and blood rushed to his head. Since he had trapped them in the street the mask had made no attempt to escape, no movement, not even a sound. With a hand lightly trembling Noa reached out for the mask to remove it and expose who was hidden beneath. As his hand touched the mask the trapped person disappeared under the street.

Noa was left standing behind—alone on the street with the necklace in one hand and the mask in the other.

He entered his home and placed the necklace and mask on the table before closing the shutters. Sitting in the chair he picked up the mask and took a proper look at it. It was plain with no remarkable or distinct features other than the water bending symbol on the forehead. The mask had the same blue colour as the clothes they wore in the Southern Water Tribe with a slightly dull hue to it. He rubbed his fingers across the mask feeling the texture. It felt like hardened leather.

His eyes glanced from the mask to the necklace on the table. It was strange, of all his belongings they chose to steal the necklace. He shifted his gaze between the mask and the necklace, wrecking his brain to think of reasons why someone would go out of their way to steal it. He came up empty no matter how hard he tried. He placed the mask on the table and stood up. _Why doesn’t matter, the important thing is that I got the necklace back_ , he thought and placed a finger on the bone medallion.

The dark drapes of night gave way to the dawning morning sun. He had had a restless night with sleep difficult to find. The ordeal of the night before had made an impact and whenever he tried to forget what had happened, convincing himself that it no longer was important, that he got the necklace back—the mask haunted him.

He got out of bed, stretched and cracked his neck and knuckles. He wiped the sleep from his eyes, sighed deeply, and looked around in his room. This was it—this was the last day he would live in his room for a long while. Everything felt different. It was indescribable, like the energy of the room had changed. He began to slowly pack a duffle bag. He went to the table to pick up the necklace. As he reached for it, his eyes fell on the mask. For a moment he starred at it before grabbing the necklace. He placed the necklace in a small compartment on the inside of the bag where it would be hidden away safely.

He met with Munlaq under the midday sun and together they made a list with provisions enough to last him a week or two on the water before he would have to make land and restock his supplies. In the time they spend gathering supplies, they talked about the things Noa might see on his journey to the Southern Water Tribe—the green expanses and the warmth of the Earth Kingdom and the mountain range of the Air Temples. It had been a few years since Noa had left the Northern Water Tribe. The times they had travelled to the south for the New Moon Celebration, they had made few stops along the way and most often spend the entire trip on the water. He hadn’t seen much of the world in that regard, but having to set out on his own in a smaller vessel meant he would have to make a lot of stops on the way, allowing him to experience the world.

As the evening had closed the gap to afternoon, Noa sat at a dinner table enjoying a bowl of tentacle soup with his parents.

“You have grown up so much,” his mother said, and looked at him with a smile on her lip.

“Going to our southern sister is a long and at times arduous journey,” his father said, “I remember when your mother and I first set out for the Northern Water Tribe, we had not prepared for that travel—you remember, my cuttlefish?” He gave small chuckle as he looked at his wife.

“It feels like a miracle we made it here,” she answered.

Noa was familiar with their tale of migration. It had been his favourite bedtime story when he was younger and he still enjoyed hearing it when his parents began reminiscing. Before long they were telling the story together. This time it felt less like a story as he was used to and more like a shared memory.

The evening drew to a close and Noa found himself retired to bed. It was important for him to be well rested for the next day’s travel and get an early start.

Noa rose with the morning light. He stretched, cracked his neck and fingers, and wiped the sleep from his eyes. It was strange having to leave the surroundings he was so familiar with. The security of home would be substituted with an uncertain travel to the south. It was at the same time terrifying yet exciting.

He found his duffel bag and some of the provisions they had acquired the day before—Munlaq had the other half—and was about to leave when his eyes glanced at the mask on the table. He paused for a moment before he on a whim put down the provisions, flung his duffel bag on the chair, and threw the mask in the bag.

In the door frame he looked back at his room. He knew it would not be the last time he would be here, he would return some day, but still it was difficult to leave.

“Let me help you carry some of it,” his father said when Noa made it down the stairs to the hallway. He handed some of the provisions to him.

Together with his parents he walked to the docks. On the way they talked about his travels. His parents were—as parents are—telling him to be cautious and not take any unnecessary risks, to watch out for himself. Noa nodded along agreeing to their warnings. He wondered at the same time how he could keep out of danger when he was sailing the vast expanses of the ocean—there was no telling what he might experience when on the water.

At the docks Noa went over to the one-man catamaran he had purchased a few years back. When he had finished loading it with his things Munlaq showed up with the rest. Together with his parents they readied the catamaran for departure.

“Have a safe journey,” his mother said and hugged him, “I love you.”

“I will, and I love you too,” Noa replied and hugged back.

“Take care and be safe,” his father said. It was obvious he was trying to hold back a tear or two. Noa nodded. His father pulled him into a tight hug. When his father released him from his arms, Noa turned to Munlaq. They grabbed each other’s forearm.

“If you don’t return, I’ll come looking for you,” Munlaq said.

“You’re not easy to get rid of,” Noa said with a smile. They gave a quick hug and Noa entered the catamaran. His father undid the moorings and tossed the lines to him. The catamaran slowly drifted away from the dock.

Noa waved goodbye as the waves carried him further away. He bended the water around the boat to give the catamaran extra speed out of the harbour. Exiting the harbour, he looked back one more time and saw his parents and Munlaq walk away from the dock. This was it. This was when a new chapter in his life would begin.


End file.
